Leverage

After the team discovers a crooked lawyer's scheme to take over his client's lucrative estate, Parker pretends to be the long-lost daughter of the wealthy client in order to lay claim to the estate before the lawyer can seize control of it.

Past Events

After learning of a deceptive restaurateur's past treachery, the Leverage team decides to infiltrate the culinary world by attending schools and mingling with celebrity chefs in order to put an end to the torment caused by the devious cook.

This is it, folks, the end of this season of "Leverage," and the end of the entire series too. Getting it tonight, immediately following the third season finale of "Rizzoli & Isles," is like TNT's Christmas gift to us all (even those of us who don't celebrate the holiday). It is, in our eyes, an acknowledgment of our dedicated television watching this season. Additionally, last week it was announced that this would be the series finale, and if for no other reason than the immense enjoyment we, personally, have found with the show, you should watch.

The leverage team targets the owner of a company in order to keep him from destroying the organization that is the source of income for nearly every citizen of an entire town but the mission may be too difficult to successfully carry out.

Nate and his team of master con-artists try on their farming boots in order to infiltrate the world of agriculture; a very unique potato is stolen from its rightful owner, which requires the crew to find a way to get it back from the thieves.

As you well know if you watch "Leverage," the group is working out of some new digs this season and, honestly, it makes us sad. It isn't that we don't love the restaurant, it's really just that we desperately want to eat there. Hardison has put an incredible amount of work into the place, Eliot too, and we just oh-so-much want to taste their brew and their food. Okay, so apparently the meatloaf isn't exactly the best, we don't care, we just want to have a nosh. Tune in tonight and tell us if you aren't intrigued.

When a predatory loan shark tries to threaten McRory's bar with extortion, Nate and the Leverage team aim to stop the criminal in his tracks by using their high-tech know-how to put an original spin on a classic con of their own.

The leverage team is forced to seek help from past alliances in order to get the support needed to defeat the seemingly unbeatable Latimer, since he is now accompanied by a foe from their past who has already proven to them to be a worthy opponent.

The brilliant thing about Nate Ford and his team is that they provide... leverage. They help the downtrodden battle against the super rich, they help lower-middle class fight the 1%. They, oh heck, we don't want to turn this into a political discussion, but it would amuse us to no end if some of the news networks took up the notion and had talking heads battle it out. As for us, we're just going to sit back, relax, and watch the two back-to-back episodes tonight, the back-to-back episodes which mark the summer finale for the series. We like what the team does and we choose not to read anything political into it.

The season five premiere of "Leverage" is entitled 'The (Very) Big Bird Job' which, naturally, makes one think of Big Bird, and while he'll almost certainly be referenced tonight, we'd be very surprised if he made an appearance. We would also be surprised if Parker or Eliot or Hardison weren't moderately scared of Big Bird. There is certainly a possibility that the members of the team will have to steal Big Bird (which would cause some fears), but that seems like an odd move for a team that fights for the little guy. We can't imagine PBS or "Sesame Street" or any related organizations doing something that would merit Nathan Ford's ire, but it's possible he requires kidnapping nonetheless.

The leverage team is forced to seek help from past alliances in order to get the support needed to defeat the seemingly unbeatable Latimer, since he is now accompanied by a foe from their past who has already proven to them to be a worthy opponent.

The team turns into a family operation when Latimer decides to get the help of Nate's father in order to infiltrate a highly guarded government facility, which leads to a chaotic hostage situation that draws the attention of the FBI.

In order to get justice and profit from a crooked duo that has taken advantage of the unfortunate victims of the recession, the team attempts to scam a brother and sister partnership involved in a highly successful Cash-for-Gold business.

The team sets out to recover a generous charity leader's missing wife after she's abducted, but in order to save the helpless woman, they are forced to infiltrate an intricate business scam, which proves to be more difficult than they expect.

The team sets out to recover a generous charity leader's missing wife after she's abducted, but in order to save the helpless woman, they are forced to infiltrate an intricate business scam, which proves to be more difficult than they expect.

Tonight's episode is called 'The Last Dam Job' and, we imagine, it will feature our team of leveragers (we're going leveragers, that's right, what are you going to do about it?) doing something at a dam. Perhaps that will lead Archie Goodwin to saying 'Alright, let's go steal a dam.' Of course, he'll be pretending like he's not Archie Goodwin, he'll be pretending like he's Timothy Hutton playing Nathan Ford, but we know he'll always really be Archie Goodwin, just like Aldis Hodge isn't really Aldis Hodge but actually Voodoo and Gina Bellman is actually Jane. We lead a special life and we miss Archie, Voodoo, and Jane (and Natalie and Lindsey).

After the kids have gone to bed, after the last of the Christmas dinner is eaten, after all the hoopla is finally done, who doesn't like to sit back, relax, and veg out just a little bit. The problem with such a plan though is that all too often there is nothing worth watching on TV on Christmas night. Well, there is this year "Leverage" is airing an all-new episode. Entitled 'The Lonely Hearts Job,' this week's episode promises to have everything that your typical "Leverage" episode contains like humor and reversals and cleverness and drinking. "Leverage" is, regularly, a grand old time and there's no reason for tonight's episode to be any different.

The last new "Leverage" episode aired almost exactly three months ago (unless we are wrong--and we are never wrong--the last new episode was on August 28). That makes it high time that the team returned to swindle a whole new group of bad guys. Well, new bad guys except for the old bad guys who return because the good guys haven't yet eliminated the bad guys either because the good guys haven't had the opportunity or because the bad guys somehow managed to return after the good guys got them. That is to say, we're not sure exactly what the swindles will be this time out, but we're sure they will exist.

We love our "Leverage," with its great use of different criminal types coming together in order to form one super non-criminal group. We get why they stay good (even though they've stopped talking about it, the group has made sure they profit based on their do-gooding which is the sort of do-gooding we can get behind) and it's fun to see them do a whole lot of ends justifying the means. We don't necessarily agree with their tactics, but we do so love watching them work, they know exactly where to hit people and they roll with the punches quite brilliantly.

What does Archie Goodwin do in this series? Well, as he tells it, he provides... leverage. Of course, he doesn't call himself Archie Goodwin, he doesn't even call himself Timothy Hutton, instead, he refers to himself as Nate Ford (probably it's so the Feds can't find him). Whatever he may call himself isn't the relevant matter at the moment however, what is relevant is that Ford and his team of criminals turned good guys are going to be doing their thing not once, but twice this very evening. That's right, we're getting back-to-back episodes of "Leverage" and that is just the right way to end the weekend.

It doesn't really matter to us that Timothy Hutton has been playing Nate Ford longer than he played Archie Goodwin, to us he'll always be Archie. It's just like Gina Bellman will always be Jane, Christian Kane will always be Lindsey, Aldis Hodge will always be Voodoo, and Beth Riesgraf will always be Parker. We will say though that we truly love that these actors have all come together for "Leverage," which manages to clever, funny, and action-filled on a regular basis.

Much as with shows on another cable network which will remain nameless, we feel as though TNT has pulled a fast one on us. "Leverage" just came back earlier in December and now it's gone already? They really disappeared in September only to return with three episodes in December before declaring the season done? Listen, we like the series and we're going to continue to watch, that just feels... well, a little silly. We think maybe we shouldn't get so excited for when they start season four. We will, but we think we shouldn't.

Isn't there just something fantastic about seeing the rich and powerful get what they deserve, and we don't just mean in a 'send them to jail for 150 years' kind of way. No, we mean in the conniving, fun, and sometimes relatively brutal way that the folks on "Leverage" go about getting even. Forget their 'sometimes bad guys make the best good guys' motto, let's just say that never has conning the rich to give to the poor been quite so much fun. Plus, if you pretend that Timothy Hutton is still playing Archie Goodwin it's even better.

What is it about con men that makes them so darn likable? We know that we shouldn't fall for the type of individual who can lie to our faces without us ever being the wiser; who can steal our money without our ever having a clue; who can rip out our still-beating hearts, take a bite out of them, throw them on the dirty floor and then stomp on them until nothing remains. Whoa, that last one was probably not quite about con men, was it? In any case, what is it about bad guys (in this case who have turned into good guys) that makes them so darn fantastic. We hope to discover that tonight.

We love it when our favorite shows premiere new seasons with back-to-back episodes. It's like having a double shot of espresso instead of a single, two scoops of ice cream instead of one, pretty much anything from a Doublemint Gum commercial (save maybe the gum itself). Thus, we are well pleased that Timothy Hutton and the rest of the gang from "Leverage" are opening their new season tonight with not one, but two new episodes. Watch as the "Leverage" crew fights for the little guy and does so with style and some pretty cool toys.

Is there anything that Timothy Hutton can't do? From his appearances in films and on television, it seems not. We particularly like him in this role, it affords him the opportunities to be both good and bad, to play to both the best and worst parts of human nature. We might prefer him as Archie Goodwin, but his role here as Nathan Ford certainly has its own delights. We hope that Gina Bellman's Sophie Devereaux will be amongst the good things on the show tonight, but it's possible that Sophie is still boycotting the team.

The Timothy Hutton-led squad of criminals turned do-gooders is back on the air tonight, and ready to continue their do-gooding ways. As you may recall this crack squad of baddies - save Hutton's character who has always been a goodie - has opted to use their dark powers in order to right wrongs and help those who can't help themselves. They are a fun, funny, clever, and distinctly odd group of individuals. We do wonder about one thing however - as they already started down the dark path, doesn't it have to forever dominate their destiny? A wise Muppet once told us that. Also, Jeri Ryan guest stars tonight.